It's been an incredible year for animals in London. Apart from Alex's Mad Monkey, we had the London Whale and then, this weekend just gone, the absolutely incredible London Elephant. I swear, I have never, ever seen anything like it in the city and I doubt we will see its like again.

Parading up from Horse Guard's parade along the Mall, and down Picadilly to Trafalgar Square doing all sorts of odd and funny peculiar things along the way - this was pure real joy. I actually thought I was tripping at one point. We were singing all the elephant songs we could remember - 'Little Blue', 'Nelly the Elephant', 'Effervescing Elephant' and so on. Valentine even broke into a jig at one point.

I hope if you live here, you saw it and if you don't that you get chance to one day.......

Blessings on those with elephant sized imaginations and ambitions - and particularly on those who managed to keep the Health and Safety Nazis at bay -a gargantuan task in itself .....but oh, what a sight!

21 comments:

Wow. It looks damn amazing. Though slightly creepy. I wish I'd been able to see it!

The London whale? What's that? Only thing that reminds me of is Moby Dick!With greedy ears I learned the history of that murderous monster against whom I and all the others had taken our oaths of violence and revenge.

Seeing the London Elephant on BBC made me smile and miss London more than usual. They say it sprayed the crowds to cool them down. How nice that sounds compared to the dry wind blowing here between the Mountains and Plains. I could do with a trip and a jig in an Elephant shower. It would be in the best interest of MY Health and Safety. cheers-

A whale swam up the Thames and got stuck there this January. We managed to see it by Battersea Park when we were heding West but sadly it died later that day as it was being 'liberated' - a bit like the Iraqis right? Nice quote Stella but I don't think it was as big as Moby Dick - a mere nipper in fact - but a wonderful sight nevertheless - and my friend Lou who works for the Natural History Museum said it has been preserved and will be on display there soon.

And Nellee, you're right - the elephant did spray the crowds - there was a great moment when it absolutely drenched a row of policemen and Traffic wardens. A huge cheer went up naturally as you can imagine............

Policemen and traffic wardens should be hosed down as often as possible! It builds character.Death by Liberation. Never a nice way to go. But I suppose it makes the killing seem more charitable and less barbaric. Maybe you can even sleep better knowing all those corpses are free to pursue death to it's fullest. Sadly that mainly involves turning into foul smelling goo. But foul smelling goo with free will. No....it still sounds like a bad way to go.

I need to get away from Newcastle and come to London, the city seems to have slightly more interesting things. We don't have elephants, we've got fat women in size too small jeans and stetch mark wrinkled bare tyres...

Eh. Are the cops not terribly liked in the UK? I'm planning on applying to Police school, hopefully becoming a mounted police. But then, the police force is unusually liked and trusted by the citizens in this country :)

Hi Stella, noticed that you are finnish, too...well I think that most of us would cheer very loudly if we saw something like that happened, and especially to traffic wardens! I have always been kind of afraid of policemen, though I seldom do anything illegal, of course =)

Yes, it was all in good humour - and I think the police saw that. The Traffic Wardens are another matter - a humourless bunch of jackals organised by private companies to extract the maximum amount of money from the generally well behaved - and swiftly becoming the most disliked minority in the city - regardless of race, creed and sexuality!

Aloizii, sinäkin? I liked the story on your blog :) About poor Sergei.

Aye, Stephen, no one likes traffic wardens. I know they're just doing their jobs, but they can be pretty darn difficult about it. (Not that I haven't met any cops who can't be difficult too, but eh, it's just in the human nature.) But I guess in such a dull job, you have to stir up trouble yourself.

But I've friends in the UK who've told me that, at least in the outskirts of London, the Police aren't terribly appreciated...

If the police force in your country is liked and respected....join them. The world could use more good cops. I have mixed feelings on our police. Some are good and some are bad. Some have a VERY bad habit of beating minorities. On a personal level I hate that they ask if you know why they have pulled you over. Nothing like a pop quiz from someone with a gun.

Yep, Nell, I've been planning on joining them for a long time now :) I just have to finish my schooling and get some work experience before I can apply!

And yeah, there are bad cops in every country. It's sad, but they're just humans, and humans tend to be assholes to eachother :( Some cops just don't understand that they don't have the prerogative to act freely on their emotions.

I meant to tell you that along with being sad about missing the elephant I am grumpy about missing your gig at the Tate Modern. My husband and I are often in London during the month of May, but not THIS May. I hope it goes great and I will try not to give up hope on seeing you perform live.I have begun to plot a trip for next year and hope to spend a week catching great gigs and crawling through as many museums as we can. So I will hope to catch you and the Bruegel at the Somerset House I have been wanting to see.

We have a few shows coming up over summer - i will post more details soon - and we will be playing the film again soon I am sure. The BFI are releasing it on DVD with our soundtrack so I expect we will roll it out

Thank you very much for the information. Now all I need for you to do is make certain you play Colorado. I'm sure it is considered a MAJOR stop for any performer. After all we have ummmm...well...we have mountains...very thin air...ummm...birthplace of Glenn Miller...good mexican food...I KNOW...we have a truck stop that makes GREAT cinnamon rolls (that last selling point is one my husband came up with. sometimes it's nice to trip at a truck stop.). Shit! Good thing I dont work for our tourist department. Imagine the posters COME TO COLORADO AND TRIP AT A TRUCK STOP.Sorry....I'm afraid I have just gotten silly at this point. I'll leave quietly.

Cheers-nellpson second thought....i suppose the polite thing would be for us to just come to london.

Okay...so I am about to get all mushy...you have been warned. the day you posted "elephantism" i was stuck at home after having a seizure (epileptic..dont ya know). i was miserable, mad, frustrated and roaming the house restless and unable to sleep. i started listening to i, lucifer and my mood began to improve. my husband introduced me to the work of the real tuesday weld by showing me alex's animation online. he thought i would like alex's work and the music. he was right. after 19 years he has me pretty well figured out. anyway...i decided to check out the real tuesday weld website to distract my moody self. i watched the videos and a smile actually found it's way to my stiff little face. i spotted your blog...i had never seen a blog...used a blog..i was blog impaired. as i read your stories i found myself laughing, relaxing and feeling less angry. while i was there up popped "elephantism" and i caught you live. after reading a bit more i was able to crawl into bed and sleep for several hours. when my husband got home we sat and listened to every podcast and i was again able to cheer up and get more sleep. (you have a very soothing voice.)this has been the first time anyones music and stories have been able to distract me from a post-seizure pity party. for years i have used bill hicks, billy connolly and other such folks, whose work i respect and whose bravery at facing an audience i greatly admire, as a crutch. (well...them and a certain plant. not that i'm encouraging others to do such things. but sometimes modern medicine only goes so far.) i have been buying up every bit of tuesday weld i can get my hands on and it has helped me through some very ugly migraines and less than great brain days. i check back here each afternoon to see if any new beautiful things have appeared. so...there ya go...you have forever won a place in my heart for making life nicer. a VERY big thank you to Stephen, The Clerkenwell Kid, Valentine, Glen Duncan, Alex Budovskiy, Jacques van Rhijn, Martyn Jacques, Clive Painter, Don Brosman and Brian Lee. hope i remembered everyone.